"I really relate to her 'Fight, not flight' -- I'm a fighter," she told The Hollywood Reporter on the blue carpet of the Independent Spirit Awards, where she was nominated for best female lead for The Spectacular Now.

She added, "But also, I grew up with two psychologist parents, so empathy, selflessness and compassion are engrained in me from a two-year-old. I think that juxtaposition of being brave and being a fighter … and being soft and gentle."

Woodley, who first generated big-screen buzz with The Descendants and will soon be seen in Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars, noted that she prefers the "organic process" of making independent films.

"There's a sense of freedom in it," she told THR. "Studio films are sort of a lot of cooks in the kitchen -- and that's good, and that needs to happen because there's a formula. They know what works and what doesn't work.

"But in indie films, it's kind of like, we have a blank canvas, and you're like, 'I'm gonna throw some red on there today. Oh shit, that looks awful -- tomorrow, we gotta throw some blue because that red didn't work.' You're sort of making it up as you go along."

She added of the on-set spontaneity, "I get bored easily, so to change it up frequently is nice."